War on Pesky Placards : Anti-Sign Crusaders in Olivenhain Called Heroes
If there was anything that stuck in Bob Nortman’s craw, it was those signs.
Lining the roadways along the pristine fields and meadows near Nortman’s home in Olivenhain, the endless rows of placards always blared the same message--another bushel full of homes for sale, another housing tract on the auction block. Development, development and more development.
To Nortman, the roadside real estate signs were nothing more than visual blight, a blemish tainting the beauty of Olivenhain, a bucolic community of homes and horse farms nestled among the rolling hills on the eastern edge of Encinitas. Worse yet, Nortman says, most of the 4-by-8-foot billboards and smaller real estate signs were illegal, erected without proper permits or set up in public right of ways.
A few years ago, Nortman set out on a crusade against the signs. He began complaining to local lawmakers. Eager to document his claims, he snapped photos of crews planting the signs. He wrote letters to the editor of the local newspaper and complained about his pet peeve at public meetings.
And, in the process, Nortman got sued.
Taking Matter in Own Hands
Seems that some residents of the community, ticked off by the illegal signs and the development boom they represented, had decided to take matters into their own hands and began tearing the things down. When the owner of a firm particularly hard hit decided it was time to put a stop to the antics of these sign vigilantes, he found a ready culprit: Bob Nortman.
The company’s owner, Al Wylie, slapped Nortman with a $1.6-million lawsuit in 1985, alleging he was responsible for the loss of $20,000 in signs that had been uprooted. Later, Wylie added Tom Buckel, another Olivenhain resident and noted sign-hater, to the lawsuit.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the courthouse. Nortman and Buckel became something of folk heroes in these parts, where the only thing many locals hate more than the illegal roadside signs are the housing tracts they herald.
Residents literally rallied around the pair, holding garage sales to raise money for their legal defense fund and forming a group called “Friends Against Illegal Signs” to lend moral support to the cause.
“Bob was picked on because he had been so effective in fighting against the illegal signs,” recalls Encinitas Mayor Marjorie Gaines, herself a resident of Olivenhain and a staunch opponent of the illegal signs. “They were hoping to neutralize his effective action by hauling him into court and costing him money. They were trying to create a chilling atmosphere.”
If that was the tactic, it didn’t work.
Signs Hard to Find
Today, the real estate signs are hard to find around Olivenhain and other sections of Encinitas. Part of the credit must be given to city leaders, who slapped a moratorium on the signs soon after the municipality was incorporated a year ago. Now the city has formed a committee to draw up laws regulating the roadside signs. Among the members is--you guessed it--Bob Nortman.
Gaines and other city officials, however, say problems with signs began to diminish well before the city incorporated. In particular, she credits the efforts of the sign vigilantes and, of course, Nortman.
While Buckel insists he never was among the residents who sabotaged the developer signs, Nortman refuses at the advice of his attorney to say whether he took part in the sign vigilantism.
What Nortman certainly did help do was make life miserable for lots of sign companies. After repeated tries, Nortman and other residents managed to convince county officials to approve tougher laws regulating the mini-billboards. In addition, they began pushing the Sheriff’s Department to crack down on the illegal signs.
The result was, as Nortman dubs it, “The Great Chainsaw Massacre.” At the request of sheriff’s deputies, a county public works crew in 1985 took down nearly three dozen plywood billboards, the bread-and-butter advertising gimmick of the development community, that had been erected in the public right of way.
Minor Skirmish Escalates
Around the same time, the sign vigilantes were kicking into full throttle. And what had started out as a minor skirmish soon escalated into all-out war.
When the sign companies began cementing and chaining the billboards in place, the vigilantes armed themselves with bolt cutters and saws. When the companies sprayed a clear protective coat on the placards to guard against graffiti, the vigilantes countered by spreading tar on them.
“It became sort of a contest between the sign companies’ ingenuity and the determination and ingenuity of the local vigilantes,” Gaines said.
Like his peers, Wylie was irked by the ongoing assault. At one point, he promised in a local newspaper to financially “castrate” anyone he found vandalizing his signs. Then he filed the lawsuit against Nortman.
Gaines and other community members responded to news of the legal action by organizing a garage sale in September, 1985, raising about $1,700 to help defray Nortman’s court costs.
But the fete also prompted problems. Soon after, Wylie’s attorney dragged in Gaines and six other garage-sale organizers to give depositions on the case. In addition, the lawyer unsuccessfully argued that a list of donors who had contributed to the sale be turned over.
Victims of Uprising
“They thought everyone was in collusion against them,” Nortman said.
Gaines agreed, suggesting that there never was an organized band of vigilantes. Rather, the signs were the victims of an uprising of the masses, she maintained.
“For years people tried to get the county to do something about the signs, but the answers were so weak that I think people became disillusioned,” Gaines said. “I believe people began tearing them down in frustration. I’ve had numerous times myself where I felt like going out and doing that, so I don’t think it was an organized group of people at all.”
When Buckel was named as part of the lawsuit about a year ago, the community again pitched in. Last March, yet another garage sale was held, this time raising $1,800. Eager to poke fun, a banner was hung outside the sale saying, “Wylie Spies Welcome. Please Bring Money!”
“Those illegal roadside signs got a lot of people angry,” Nortman says today. “Developers take advantage of people on the growth issue, then they go and grind your nose in it by putting up all these ugly signs.”
Case’s Direction Up in Air
Where the legal case against Nortman and Buckel will go now is still up in the air. As yet, Wylie has not pushed for a court date. Wylie did not return a reporter’s phone calls and his attorney refused to talk. Nortman and the others say Wylie’s firm is having financial difficulties.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s strictly harassment and a fishing expedition,” said Buckel. “I don’t think they have proof of anything.”
In the meantime, Nortman and other members of the Encinitas sign committee are busy crafting regulations they hope will keep the developer placards from proliferating once again. The key element of the program, which will likely go before the City Council next month, is a plan to establish kiosks at strategic street corners pointing the way to new housing projects. A similar program is now in use in Carlsbad and Poway.
“It should help,” Nortman said. “At one time a few years ago, I counted 338 signs in the Encinitas area from 18 different developments. They were really ugly, plus being illegal. They were messing up the whole community.”
